Nintendo Doesn't Believe In Online Gaming
from the hmm dept
While Microsoft and Sony seem to be betting big dollars on the rise of online gaming from their console systems, Nintendo seems to think they're throwing money away. Nintendo president Satoru Iwata was quoted as saying, "customers do not want online games." While I've been a bit skeptical about the space in the past, the growing success of things like Xbox Live suggests that I (and Satoru Iwata) may have written off the space way too quickly. In my defense, my thoughts on the matter came before broadband was so common and before there was any evidence either way. I still don't think all games will go online, but there very clearly is a large and growing market for console-based online games -- and to completely deny that with all of the existing evidence suggests Nintendo has their head in the sand. Update: CNN has a good (related) story wondering why ISPs aren't making a bigger deal about online gaming, and signing up with the various companies for partnerships.
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Government-sponsored online games
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20040707-00000045-scn-int
The US army has also built online games to promote recruitment, if I'm not mistaken.
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Something to consider...
The blanket statement is a bad way to promote that idea, though, because online gaming is happening and isn't going away. Still, we live in an era where people buy more than one console, so it doesn't seem too far-fetched to have one console for online play and another for some good party games, no?
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No Subject Given
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No online Nintendo
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Re: No online Nintendo
Where Nintendo is really missing the boat--and where their stubborn rejection of online gaming will hurt their bottom line in the US market--is sports gaming.
ESPN did a whole week's worth of features on sports video games not too long ago. They mentioned that a lot of NASCAR drivers actually play online racing games to prepare for specific tracks and practice different team racing strategies.
So if you're racing online and the guy in the Dale Jr. car manages to whip around you from the outside, it might actually be Dale Jr. I guess you can't get that with Nintendo, huh?
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